Sunday, May 06, 2012

Dashed Off

I'm a bit behind on these, so there will probably be a few of these in the coming weeks. As always, these are dashed-off notes, so take with a grain of salt.

probability in light of personal trust and love
- Newman addresses this from three directions before the Catholic period in University Sermons, Ecclesiastical Miracles, and Development of Doctrine

apologetic, polemical, & didactic evangelization

jury duty as a possible crime deterrent

In every age the disciplina arcani must be practiced but in every age its form must be different; for where the Spirit of the Age turns its gaze, and where one may hide from that gaze, changes from age to age.

three kinds of analogies in terms of which any moral principles can be exposited
(1) natural
(2) practical
(3) political
- i.e., morality being natural, practical, and political in some sense, there is always the possiblity of analogizing it to things that are natural, practical, or political in other senses

Sabellianism, taken in the precise sense in which it is heretical, is known not by the form of words it uses nor by the approach it takes to teaching the doctrine fo the Trinity, but by its effect on the doctrine fo the Incarnation: that is Sabellian which affirms the unity fo God in such a way that the affirmation requires either Patripassianism or a denial of such personal or hypostatic union as is required to see the distinction of the Father and the Son.

assortative reasoning

With a dialogical argument evaluation of its status requires attention to the means used to excite apprehension of, and direct attention to, what is thought relevant.

Whether temporal prosperity is a note of the True Church necessarily depends on what is meant by 'prosperity'.

the explanation-like character of naming practices

Hope by its nature paints pictures of its object; these may be more crude or more sophisticated, and more or less imaginative, sentimental, or rational, without changing the object at all.

diamondward & boxward ampliation

Toleration works well if everyone can agree about the harmless and the harmful.

Monotheisms in contact with polytheisms develop theologies.

The spirit of antichrist rests on the anomos; the anomoi spread it like an infection, under the cover of good causes sincerely but lawlessly believed.

The darkness of an age is overcome by creating alliances among otherwise isolated islands of good.

In The Fellowship of the Ring, note the link between Gandalf's comment to himself in II.1 and Galadriel's gift to Frodo in II.8. Note, too, that Book II is framed by crises in which Frodo puts on the Ring and struggles with the power of Mordor, first the Ringwraiths, then the Eye. Note, too, that we have first Rivendell then Lorien:
Crisis - Rivendell ... Lorien - Crisis

Good statistics are always reasons to inquire but even good statistics are not always reasons to conclude.

analogical arguments as fugues

Gersonides' account of perplexity in terms of massive numbers of contradictory disjuncts

logic of analogical inference & logical method of counterexamples

finitary and infinitary polytheisms

metaphor as inviting the audience to fill in the canvas

acknowledgment and appreciation responses in conversation and texting

mendicity depots
general assurance societies

The philosopher with no metaphors can only recombine old ideas.

First approximations are not to be despised.

the importance of archives in The Lord of the Rings

People do not form relationships because they find them fulfilling, even if they are; they form them for other reasons and then hope that they will be, or will continue to be, fulfilling.

Reason is the guardian of understanding.

understanding, making, and healing

incommensurability of doubt and puzzlement

Love for the neighbor is that which is eternal in all love. (Kierkegaard)

Genuine competition occurs only in a Goldilocks Zone of moderate unpredictability.

Sport derives from training.

probability as guarded assertion (cf. Toulmin)

the mereological analysis of definitions

Human life does not sharply begin and sharply end; its edges are not clearly delineated at conception and death. People ar enot being unreasonable in puzzling over when human personhood begins and whether zygotes are living a properly human life; they are not being unreasonable in puzzling over whether heart death or brain death is the better endpoint or whether patients in vegetative states are living a properly human life. There are no manifest signs at either ends. But why should prudence and reason need such manifest signs and sharp cut-offs, as if they were incompetent to navigate any of the fuzziness of human life?

Theology is only queen of the sciences to the extent that it is the doctrine of saints; the teaching of this or that academic is often enough mere speculation and too often mere fantasy.

tu quoque as estoppel

justice as the structure of philanthropy

the ordering relation among preferences is irreflexive, imperfectly transitive, and asymmetric

topological interpretation of strict implication

Aesthetic consciousness -- seeing a circle, to recognize it as a cross-section of sphere and hypersphere, though still seeing only a circle; seeing a Pieta, to recognize it as a cross-section of something infinite, though seeing only this statue here.

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For a rough introduction to my philosophy of blogging, including the Code of Amiability I try to follow on this weblog, please read my fifth anniversary post. I consider blogging to be a very informal type of publishing - like putting up thoughts on your door with a note asking for comments. Nothing in this weblog is done rigorously: it's a forum to let my mind be unruly, a place for jottings and first impressions. Because I consider posts here to be 'literary seedings' rather than finished products, nothing here should be taken as if it were anything more than an attempt to rough out some basic thoughts on various issues. Learning to look at any topic philosophically requires, I think, jumping right in, even knowing that you might be making a fool of yourelf; so that's what I do. My primary interest in most topics is the flow and structure of reasoning they involve rather than their actual conclusions, so most of my posts are about that. If, however, you find me making a clear factual error, let me know; blogging is a great way to get rid of misconceptions.